ACHUKA Children's Books UK

children's & YA recommendations on the go

You are here: Home / Archives for China

This Place is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 June 2022

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“About much more than just racism toward Chinese Americans, this novel deftly tackles the precarious moments surrounding the end of high school and the beginning of college, when romantic and familial relationships are complicated, changing, and all-consuming. Quiet yet powerful, complex, and grounded in the reality that nothing will ever be completely resolved.” KIRKUS

Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.

Annalie and Margaret are sisters who agree on only one thing — that they have nothing in common. Annalie is seventeen — sweet, content, and looking forward to a summer of flirting with the most popular boy in school. Margaret is nineteen — ambitious, a warrior for social justice, and desperate to forget her ex-boyfriend in New York City. When their family is the victim of a racial attack, Annalie tries to pretend it never happened but Margaret wants to fight back. Suddenly their relationship is hanging by a thread. And then a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever…

A beautiful and powerful story about family, identity and the secrets we keep.

Xixi (pronounced like two c’s) Tian was born in China and grew up in central Illinois. She attended the University of Illinois  and then Harvard Law School before becoming a tech lawyer. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, cat Umberto (see the Instagram post) and young baby. She has written on Instagram about contemporaneously becoming a new mother and a debut author. “Publishing, I guess, is a lot like motherhood. Great but also bad. I decided, like a major dumbass, to have a debut novel and a debut baby within 3 months of each other, thinking, how hard can it be? I’ll be on 6 months of maternity leave; it’ll be like a half year vacation with my baby; it’s a rollercoaster that only goes up!!!! Friends, I would not recommend. I’m begging y’all to wrap it up until WELL AFTER you’ve worked through your first book ennui.”

Follow the author on Instagram (here you see Umberto alongside the US cover of the book):

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by XiXi Tian (@xixiwrites)

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Nov 2021

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“A dazzling blend of Chinese history, myth and mecha sci-fi” VoiceMag
“If you like mechs, Chinese myth, and badass female leads, written by an author who certainly knows their stuff, this is the novel for you.” FinFiAddict

Science fiction and East Asian myth combine in this dazzling retelling of the rise of Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history

The boys of Huaxia dream of the celebrity status that comes with piloting Chrysalises – giant transforming robots that battle the aliens beyond the Great Wall. Their female co-pilots are expected to serve as concubines and sacrifice their lives.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, her plan is to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But on miraculously emerging from the cockpit unscathed after her first battle, the Iron Widow sets her sights on bigger things. The time has come to take on the entire patriarchal military system.

Xiran Jay Zhao  is a first-generation immigrant to Canada from  China and recent graduate from Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University. Iron Widow is her first novel.

Follow the author on Instagram:

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“Ma successfully creates vivid settings in Los Angeles and China as she uncovers important issues facing Asian Americans, including family expectations, identity, sacrifice and honour.”
School Library Journal
“Soap-opera–worthy twists are grounded by ties to significant events in contemporary Chinese history in this meaningful debut.” KIRKUS

The first book in an epic and romantic YA series following the fictionalized descendants of the only officially recognized empress regent of China

Gemma Huang is a recent transplant to Los Angeles from Illinois, having abandoned plans for college to pursue a career in acting, much to the dismay of her parents. Now she’s living with three roommates in a two-bedroom hovel, auditioning for bit roles that hardly cover rent. Gemma’s big break comes when she’s asked to play a lead role in an update of M. Butterfly filming for the summer in Beijing. When she arrives, she’s stopped by paparazzi at the airport. She quickly realizes she may as well be the twin of one of the most notorious young socialites in Beijing. Thus kicks off a summer of revelations, in which Gemma uncovers a legacy her parents have spent their lives protecting her from-one her mother would conceal from her daughter at any cost.

Diana Ma is a debut Chinese-American author who holds a BA in creative writing from the University of Washington and an MA in English with a creative writing focus from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She lives in a suburb of Seattle.

A hero reborn: ‘China’s Tolkien’ aims to conquer western readers

By Leave a Comment

The world’s biggest kung fu fantasy writer, Jin Yong enjoys huge popularity in the Chinese-speaking world. In the west, however, his name is barely known, largely due to the complexity of the world he has created and the puzzle that has posed for translators.

Now, for the first time, the beginning of his extraordinarily popular series, Legends of the Condor Heroes, has been translated into English for a mainstream readership. It is a task that has already defeated several translators, yet Anna Holmwood, 32, from Edinburgh has managed it – or at least the first volume. Her British publisher, MacLehose Press, plans a 12-volume series, with Holmwood’s first volume, A Hero Born, due out in February.

via The Guardian A hero reborn: ‘China’s Tolkien’ aims to conquer western readers | Books | The Guardian.

China restricts access to foreign children’s books

By Leave a Comment

Beijing is now introducing new measures to restrict access to foreign books and publications as it opens a new front in its battle to limit outside influence on Chinese society.

Regulators have given verbal instructions to publishers to limit the number of children’s books written by foreign authors made available in China, according to three people with knowledge of the order. The decision would reduce the thousands of children’s titles published in Chinese translation every year to just a few hundred, one of them said.

Taobao, one of China’s biggest ecommerce sites and owned by Jack Ma’s Alibaba, said on Friday it would prohibit the sale of all foreign publications on its platform by vendors not licensed by the government.

via China restricts access to foreign children’s books.

More kids, fewer tests make China’s children’s books boom

By Leave a Comment

China’s publishers of children’s books have burst on to the international publishing scene as major players. Book Expo America in New York has had a significant Chinese presence since 2015, while Italy’s Bologna Book Fair, the premier childrens lit event in the book industry, has declared China itsguest of honor for 2018.

This past decade has become known as the golden age of publishing of children’s books in China. In 2003, the country had only 20 publishers specializing in children’s books. That number now has jumped to more than580. Some may consider the market saturated, but what we are seeing now is a switch to emphasizing quality over quantity and a focus on producing more original content.

In the year 2000, Harry Potter was translated into Chinese, sparking a major trend in importing translated children’s books from the West. In the years that followed, many foreign works became staples of children’s bookshelves, whether in translation or used for English practice.

Popular titles include Peppa Pig (which my neighbor’s five-year-old son in Changzhou absolutely loved), The Magic School Bus picture book, and Disney Baby Story Book. While these continue to outsell local works, there are a good number of Chinese authors of children’s books enjoying significant success. These include Shen Shixi, author of Dream of Being a Wolf King and a series of Animal Novels, and Leiou Huanxiang, author of Monster Master and Charlie IX & Dodomo. As the market continues to grow, I expect to see more and more Chinese authors stepping up to create quality content for kids.

via More kids, fewer tests make China’s children’s books boom | MENAFN.COM.

China cracks down on foreign children’s books

By Leave a Comment

Winnie-the-Pooh, Peppa Pig, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and even James and his Giant Peach are feeling the heat in China amid reports of a Communist party crackdown on children’s literature.

With about 220 million under-14s and a rapidly growing middle class, China is home to a potentially massive market for children’s picture books. More than 40,000 children’s books were reportedly published here last year alone.

The Guardian view on China: political spectacle and substance
Editorial: The springtime political gatherings in Beijing are a carefully choreographed show. They can only tell us so much
Read more
But with an aggressive Communist party campaign against supposedly hostile western ideas currently underway, foreign storybooks appear to have found themselves in Beijing’s cross hairs.

According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, Chinese publishers have received orders that the number of foreign picture books being printed in China must be slashed.

Storybooks from South Korea and Japan now stood almost no chance of published in China, one publishing source told the newspaper, while the supply of books from other countries would be “very limited”.

via Peppa Pig pulled: China cracks down on foreign children's books | World news | The Guardian.

The Booming Rights Scene for Children’s Books in China

By Leave a Comment

Staggering numbers and unusual circumstances are converging to create a bubbling segment: 370 million children under the age of 18, a two-child policy predicted to add at least three million babies annually, and around 580 publishing companies jumping onto the children’s book bandwagon. Additionally, China’s fast-growing middle class—covering 70% of its urban population or roughly 200 million people based on a McKinsey survey—is exerting its market influence by becoming more demanding, discerning, sophisticated, and vocal.Less statistical but nonetheless critical is the growing awareness—and impetus—among Chinese parents, teachers and policymakers to get children to read more, and to read for leisure as opposed to reading in order to pass their examinations. In fact, China’s 2020 education reform policy is pressurizing schools, teachers and parents to seek more reading, learning, and teaching materials to meet reform objectives, which are to reduce homework and standardized exams and move towards an employment-oriented education system. This has created new opportunities for direct imports, co-publishing deals, bilingual editions, and translations.

via The Booming Rights Scene for Children's Books in China.

Andersen Award Winner criticizes low quality of children’s books in China

By Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2016-04-12 at 08.52.54Novelist Cao Wenxuan, who won the Hans Christian Anderson [sic] Award several days ago — making him the first Chinese writer to do so, revealed his concerns regarding the quality of contemporary children’s books during a press conference at Peking University, Beijing, on Monday.
“There are so many children in China who make great demands for these books. Therefore, the industry attracts a lot of unqualified writers and earns them tremendous amounts of money,” Cao said.

In his remarks, Cao said that he is expecting writers of children’s books to concentrate on their creations rather than on commercial gimmicks.

via Novelist criticizes low quality of children’s books – China.org.cn.

First 24-hour bookstore opens in Beijing

By Leave a Comment

CCTV

Good news for book lovers in Beijing: the city’s first 24-hour bookstore, to be a cultural landmark, has been launched by the Sanlian Bookstore. Owned by the China Publishing Group Corporation, Sanlian is a major bookstore in the country. It has started its trial run, and the news has been warmly received by the public.

Beijing bookworms can now become night owls with the opening of the city’s first 24-hour bookstore.

Click through to watch a TV news report (in English) about this Beijing bookstore….

via First 24-hour bookstore opens in Beijing – CCTV News – CCTV.com English.